by Zoë Pollock
Vaughan Bell narrates the life and times of Wilhelm Reich, a disciple of Freud:
[Reich] began to believe that the power of orgasm, called orgone, could be stored in batteries and could be absorbed from the sky by the use of a special machine called a cloudbuster. If the name of the machine seems familiar, it’s probably because it ‘Cloudbusting’ was the title of a song and video by Kate Bush which told the story of Reich’s machine and his downfall. He eventually died in prison after being arrested by the FBI for illegally distributing his ‘orgone energy accumulator’ leaving a chaotic legacy that stretches from the profound to the ridiculous.
Reich emigrated to America in 1939 and gained popularity in the 1960s, specifically with various male authors. I love Norman Mailer admitting that "the apocalyptic orgasm had always eluded him."
The Dish 